Evan Thomas Dixon's Blog

Mozart vs. Beethoven (on Wordiness)

Sorry it’s been a minute since an update. I’ve been moving across town these past couple of weeks, and I sorta lost track of time and all that. But I’m back!

I’m hard at work on the third (and, dare I say it, FINAL) draft of the novel - which I have officially decided to call Oneiromancer. This third draft, as mentioned in one of my previous posts, is the one that gets the most meticulous treatment - I edit grammar and syntax like my life depends on it, carefully dissecting each sentence to make sure I’ve chosen the best possible sequence of words.

What I’ve discovered, as I’ve been editing, is a fact my best critics have pointed out to me for years: I am a terribly verbose writer.

Now, I’ll admit: I’d rather be this way than not. It’s better, I think, to have a full range of vocabulary on hand when you’re telling a story; better to be long-winded when you’re trying to belabor a point; better to - ahh, look here. This sentence is already getting too long. And that’s the point I was going to make. I think it’s easier to cut out of sentences than add to them, but a good writer knows (hopefully) that you gotta cut those sentences if they’re going to be readable. Do some readers enjoy long, winding passages of prose? Sure. But not the majority.

Here’s an example:

A
few decades ago, Philip may have shown a more prominent display of emotion.

This is a good sentence, but it’s a little long. “A more prominent display of emotion.” That’s a mouthful. What if we pared it down thus:

A few decades ago, Philip might have actually shown some emotion.

A little shorter, but it still makes the point.

And I think that’s the key to good writing: you want to say exactly what it is you’re trying to say in the most economical way possible. The first part can be hard: clear writing is difficult for a lot of people. But you can get that part down and not the second. It’s possible to be clear but cerebral, to give your readers a headache.

Notice I said “in the most economical way possible.” Not “in as few words as possible.” Sometimes, you need those long and garish sentences. Sometimes they are a big help. Sometimes they are necessary. The key to editing, I think, is to know when and where to cut.

I’ve heard it said before that there are two types of creators: Mozarts and Beethovens. The former let their story, their art, their music, etc. flow right out of them, and then go back and edit accordingly. The latter painstakingly edit details as they go, struggling to get the work out, but once they do they’re almost finished. I am most definitely a Mozart. It’s easier for me to let everything flow out, then go back and edit. In this sense, I take after Stephen King - I don’t like planning out my novels too much. It robs the experience of its…ahh…novelty.

But just as Mozart went back and made adjustments, I have to make sure I do so too. To leave things as they are, in this too wordy state, is simply bad writing.

Weekly Update - 5.22.17 (Not Much To Share)

Now that the second to
last draft of The Magic Hound
is done, I’m taking a couple of weeks off from working on it, with
the intention of diving right back in on June 1. That way I can spend
two months, before the school year starts, working my butt off to get
the novel finished and ready to go.

One
recently cool development in my writing world is that I was able to
work out the last few kinks that were keeping my various (planned)
series from tying together. The Magic Hound
and its sequel are supposed to be part of a larger, overarching
storyline that spans a few thousand years, but up until just recently
I wasn’t sure if that plan was going to be feasible or not. Now I
know that it is. Without getting into too much detail (spoilers and
all that), I’m happy to say that I was able to find the thread of
continuity that runs through these books, the trilogy I plan to write
next and the series (of two? three? four? books) that comes after.

P.S.
If you are reading this, and would still like to be a beta reader for
The Magic Hound, shoot
me an email at evanthomasdixon@gmail.com.

Okay
thanks.

Weekly Update: 5.15.17 (Including Some Insight Into My Novel-Writing Process)

Well! The Magic Hound
of Eastminster, or Oneiromancer,
or whatever this novel is called – the first novel of the Mesonox
Duology – is finished. Again. I completed the second draft
yesterday, which involved extensive revisions and additions and
corrections to the first draft. My intention is to now have only one
more draft left – the one that will incorporate inputting the
feedback of my beta readers, editing for syntax and grammar, and
sprinkling various worldbuilding details here and there. The bulk of
the work, however, is done: this book should be completely finished
by August 1, which is my self-imposed deadline.

One
awesome thing that I have learned from writing this novel is my own
process as a writer. I can’t say that I learned much from writing
Descent Into Madness
(other than how to actually complete a whole book), mainly because
that story went through so many drafts and versions that it’s hardly
a helpful example of my process. But The Magic Hound
is much more typical, and I think I’ve nailed down the formula I hope
to use for the rest of my novels going forward. The best part about
it is that the entire process only takes a year, at most, to
complete. Of course, as I grow in my craft and become better, it may
end up taking more time – who knows. I should also specify that
this novel is just a little over 100,000 words long, which is
actually a little on the short end for epic fantasy, so if I plan to
copy everybody else and churn out a couple of doorstoppers, I’ll have
to work a little harder to maintain that time frame. But hey, if I
end up published and can eventually just write full time, that may
not be so unrealistic!

Anyways,
here is the writing process I used for The Magic
Hound, and this is the
one I’ll hopefully get to use going forward.

Draft
I – This is where I run with the big picture idea of the story.
Thankfully, for the next six
novels I want to write, I have the overarching idea already laid
out, much like I did for The Magic Hound,
so I don’t have to take any time constructing detailed outlines –
I can dive right in. This first step takes about three months, and
the goal is to simply write as much as possible. I don’t worry about
editing, I don’t worry about changing plot lines (even the ones I
don’t like the moment they end up incarnated in words) – I just
write.

Interjection
1: Between steps 1 and 2, as I’m finishing up 1 and beginning 2, I
take notes on very specific things that I know I want to change:
certain plot points, certain characters, certain events, etc. I found
that taking notes while still writing, for some reason, keeps the
machinery well-oiled and ensures that I am able to move rather
seamlessly between Draft 1 and Draft 2.

Draft II – This is where all the
major revisions take place. I change the plot around to be, more or
less, exactly what I would want it to be if the book hit the shelves
the next day. I focus intensively on characterization. I add in
necessary details. I take out episodes that are a waste of page. I’m
a little less intense on this particular part of the process – I
take my time in revising, not pushing myself to be done by such and
such a point. I have an overall deadline for when I would like the
book written, of course, but this is really the most important part
of the process; this is where I’m refining and shaping the novel
into exactly what I want it to be.

Interjection
2: This is the point at which I send out the finished second draft to
beta readers. For The Magic Hound,
I made the mistake of sending out the first draft, and after getting
back a number of helpful notes from friends that were basically
reiterating what I already knew needed to be different, I realized
that I shot too early and asked for feedback when it wasn’t helpful.
So it’s after the second
draft that I will send the book to readers in the future. Also,
during revising, I do not delete anything that I think may be
salvageable later – I keep it all saved in an extra folder so that
I can go back and revisit specific scenes and episodes after awhile,
to see if I want to end up including them after all.

This is the last draft. During this
one I run through and edit every. single. sentence. My main focus is
not upon the story that is told, but the way in which it is told –
my actual writing. I will, of course, adjust plot points and
sprinkle in various details as needed, but my main focus is upon the
words themselves. This is the last run through I will do of the
book. This is also where I incorporate the feedback I get from any
of my beta readers. At this point, if all has gone according to
plan, the novel is done – and I can prepare to send it off to an
agent. In the future, I’d love for that sentence to read: I send it
to my agent. Time
will tell, I suppose!

I
guess, technically, this is a five step process with the
interjections, and I wanted it to be only three. Oh well.

Okay,
that’s all.

Weekly Update: 5.8.17

So, once again: I’ve
fallen behind on keeping up with my website. That does it! Starting
now, I am going to offer weekly updates, even if the weekly update
isn’t of much substance. I suppose the reason I’ve found it hard to
provide any kind of update is because I’ve been so disgustingly busy
with grad school that I’ve had next to no time to work on The
Magic Hound. Thankfully, that is
no longer the case – I am over halfway finished with revisions and
am pretty much working on the novel with every scrap of spare time I
can scrounge from my schedule. Hopefully, by the end of May, I will
be officially finished with the big revisions to the story and will
be able to send it back out to my beta readers, as this version will
be the one that I will be sending to literary agents (aside from
syntactical changes and the addition of little details here and
there).

In
addition to these weekly updates, I hope to also start posting
regularly on my literary interests, the craft of writing, the art of
the story, etc. — you know, all those things that are fun to nerd
out on. Is that sentence even grammatically correct? Is “nerd out
on” a technically acceptable phrase?

I
have no idea.

I
guess this ^ serves as more of an “Introduction to Regular Updates”
rather than an actual update, so here’s the actual, real
life update for this week – 5.8.17:

The
better part of revisions are finished for The Magic Hound!
I’m still astounded at how easily I’ve been able to write this book;
it’s been a virtually painless process. The ideas for the story have
been cooking in my brain for forever, of course, so maybe that’s why
it’s been much more effortless than any other attempts of mine in the
recent past. Regardless, the entire novel, now clocking in at over
100,000 words, will be finished in less than a year: I started on my
26th
birthday last year. I only hope that my other novels end up being as
easy to write. Maybe I have to let all my ideas simmer for ten years
before putting them down on paper.

Nah,
I’m too impatient for that.

Once
revisions are done, I think I will take a short break – short,
mind you – before starting on the sequel to The Magic
Hound, tentatively named
Billowbleak at the
moment. I’m still debating whether or not this series is gonna be a
duology or a trilogy. I think I’ll know once I start heavily working
on the sequel whether or not the rest of the story can be completed
in only one more book. Whatever the case, as tempted as I am to work
on some of my other ideas, I’m determined to finish this series
before I move onto anything else. I’m not Brandon Sanderson: I don’t
have the kind of mind that work on 80 different stories at once
without at least 79 of said stories being of dubious quality.

Okay,
cool! That’s all.

“Pet”

This is a flash fiction piece I wrote for my tenth graders, as we began a unit on human trafficking in Language Arts today. I figured I would share it here, because it was a useful writing exercise

When
the man returned home it was 4:45: an hour and fifteen minutes before
the first customers would arrive. It was pouring outside; he could
smell the fresh rain on the concrete as he pulled into the driveway,
shaking the drops from his jacket, cursing softly as he hoisted the
bags from the trunk. The car was new. He loved it; comfortable, five
seats, large trunk, satellite radio, back-up camera, sunroof…the
list of features went on and on. If not for the recent pay increase,
of course, he wouldn’t have been able to purchase it. Yet another
perk of the job.

His
wife was standing in the kitchen when he returned home, cooking
dinner. He stared at her behind for a moment and smiled to himself
and put the bags on the counter with a contented sigh. She turned to
him, gave him a swift peck on the cheek, eyed the bags before asking:

“How’d
the meeting go?”

“Excellent.”
He let the word hang on the air. He wanted her to ask him for more.
That’s how he always talked, always making her dangle on the edge of
his words. She loved him for it. He was certain.

“How
so? Is Smithson – does he -”

He
nodded, allowing his smile to grow larger across his face, exposing
his straight white teeth. “Four new specimens. Still preserved.
Still fresh.
And we get first selection.”

She
wrapped her arms around his neck at the news and gave him a full
kiss. They stood like that for a moment, and he reveled in the warmth
of her skin, but then a sudden thought came to him and he broke away.
“Did you feed it?”

“Oh,
baby! I’m so sorry. I totally forgot.” She turned back towards the
sink where she had been washing vegetables. “I got so caught up in
cooking for tonight that–”

“It’s
alright.” He fought to keep the irritation out of his voice. They
couldn’t afford to forget its meals: strength, what little strength
it possessed after eating, was vital if it was going to perform well.
Forget to feed it, and they could count on losing customers. “I’ll
go down there in a moment. Is the food at least-”

“Prepared,
yes. In the fridge. I’m sorry.”

“It’s
alright.” His thoughts turned to the meeting with Smithson again
and the offer he’d received. The irritation fled from his mind. “The
two most promising are a golden and a red. Appeal of 7.7 and 7.8,
according to the register.”

Her
eyes widened. “A 7.8? We’ve…we’ve never had a 7.8. We’d be the
only ones within a hundred miles who have one!”

“I
know. And do you want to know the best part?”

She
nodded vigorously.

“Smithson
said he’d offer them both in a package deal: seven thousand, five
hundred and sixty dollars.”

“Baby,
that’s wonderful news!” She laughed, that beautiful little giggle
that made him fall in love with her in the first place ten years ago.
“What to do with the extra money, then?”

“New
cages. I’ve already been looking up prices on the metallic black
double cage – there’s a sale going on now for a double purchase.
Smithson thinks he can have the new specimens to me by the end of the
week – so I’ll go tomorrow or maybe Thursday and see if I can have
them delivered before Saturday morning.”

“All
of this is just…it’s wonderful.” She twirled her skirt around and
then stepped closer to him, wrapping one of her legs around his and
breathing in his ear: “I think this will call for a celebration
tonight.”

“You
know I won’t mind that.” She broke away and he unveiled what was in
the bags: a bottle of Cabernet in each, the price tag sitting
squarely on top of the cork so she could see how much he’d spent on
her favorite wine. “I figured you deserve a gift for making all of
this possible. If it wasn’t for you, you know, being willing to take
this risk with me and get the business up and running…”

He
trailed off. There was no reason to recount to her all the things
they’d managed to do since purchasing and advertising the first
specimen five years ago: they’d paid off all their credit card debts,
purchased this three story house, gone to Europe every summer and
even purchased a small villa in Italy on the seaside. And now, with
the pay increase he’d received not too long ago when he’d decided to
start transferring specimens across state lines – now they had a
new car and a flat screen television in every room.

He
broke out of his reverie when he looked down at his wristwatch. 5:07.
Less than an hour before customers. “Let me go down and feed it.”
He trudged over to the fridge, retrieved a bowl of beef and potatoes
from the middle shelf, and headed for the basement.

As
he passed by the stairs that led to the second story he heard a thump
and a groan. Probably one of the daytime associates training the
specimens in the bedrooms. They had a large number of homegrowns on
the second story, mostly 5.5’s, good for slow days or a second choice
for clients if their preferred specimen was being currently used. The
one in the basement was the most popular, mainly because it was an
exotic and a 7.1. Highly rated. And highly recommended, from what
he’d seen of the online reviews. The 4.5 star rating it had received
made his chest swell with pride.

He
was immediately greeted with the stench of sweat and dirt and
something else, something unidentifiable as he opened the door to the
basement and descended the steps. It was unusually warm in this part
of the house, even on a colder day like today, primarily because
customers liked the warm temperatures. They liked the way the heat
made the specimen’s skin glow. He didn’t have a thought about that
one way or the other – whatever worked best for his clients, that’s
what he did. Whatever brought in the most money.

He
approached the cage and saw it sleeping in the corner. Only six
months ago they’d caught it – and how lucrative it had been every
weekend since. He knew it was probably close to its expiration date –
eight months of use was about all you could get out of the exotics
before they were either too weak or too unappealing – but he was
going to use it for all its worth. It wasn’t every day you caught a
7.1 for free.

He
kicked at the cage. The specimen rose from the mat and approached the
bars, shuffling across the straw that decorated the floor’s cage.
What looked back at him with tired, pained eyes was a girl, fifteen
years old, dark hair and dark skin, most likely from Pakistan or
India or some other exotic country, it made little difference, what
little clothing she wore was dirty and stained, there were scratches
on her neck, it made little difference, she was still desirable, she
—

No.
No. No. He fought back the thoughts. This thing was not a she.
It.
It
was a specimen. Not a girl. He hated himself for still having these
thoughts after all this time, hated that he couldn’t get rid of the
reoccurring notion that the specimens were people. It was the thought
that always returned to him, especially when he was alone with one of
them. It was the thought that usually stayed his hand and kept him
from using one of them. It was a thought he would probably never be
able to get rid of, the one weakness he had to fight against
constantly.

He
pushed open the door of the cage and threw the bowl on the ground.
Some of the contents spilled. It looked at the beef and the mashed
potatoes with complete indifference. He could see the hunger flash in
its eyes, knew that it was starving since it had not eaten in two
days. He turned to go, refusing to look it in the eyes again,
refusing to listen to its whimpers. When he reached the top of the
stairs, before he opened the door, he looked back into the humid dark
and called to it.

“Less
than an hour before clients. Eat, or I’ll break a finger. Eat, Pet.”
So saying he turned and exited the basement, but just before he
closed the door he thought he heard it say something, words he
couldn’t quite make out, words he didn’t want to understand.

Darkfield: Puzzle Fiction

Back in October, shortly before
my 26th birthday – shortly before I began writing The Magic Hound of Eastminster, the
first draft of which is now completed – I sat down to write a little novella I
decided to call Darkfield. I stole
the name from one of my favorite songs by one of my favorite bands in the
world, an instrumental band called Caspian that you should check out right this
second if you have never heard them. I set a few rules for myself in writing
the novella. They were as follows:

 1)      I
could only listen to the song “Darkfield” while writing.

2)      I
could not go back and edit the novella in any way, shape, or form. What ended
up on the page stayed on the page.

3)      No
planning the story out. I had to let it go wherever it wanted.

 If I’m pretty honest, I’m pretty
happy with the result. Darkfield
ended up being about 150 pages long, and the story came together in some
strange way while I was writing. A typo ended up being an important plot point.
A random fact included for the heck of it sent the characters off in a way I
hadn’t predicted. By the time I got to the end, I was satisfied: I’d
accomplished what I had set out to do.

 You see, I’ve always had a soft
spot – probably multiple soft spots – for experimental, off-the-wall fiction.
This is probably pretty evident from the three self-published works I have up
on my website – none of them are very traditional in any sense. How long these
books will be available for purchase, I don’t know. Now that I’m taking my
writing more seriously and hoping to make a career out of it, I’ll likely take
those books down before too long, since they don’t exactly reflect the
direction I’ve ultimately decided to go. But Darkfield perfectly encapsulates that side of fiction that I love:
the idea of some stories being like a puzzle, a journey that demands more than
a passive viewing, a narrative that escapes immediate comprehension, that makes
the chase for clues part of the reading process itself.

If you’re interested in reading
Darkfield, the link to Amazon is here:

 https://www.amazon.com/Darkfield-Evan-Thomas-Dixon/dp/153933791X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1486924282&sr=8-1&keywords=Darkfield+Evan+Thomas+Dixon

 The link to Createspace is here:

 https://www.createspace.com/6621100

And, if five dollars is too much to spend, I’ll gladly send
the PDF to anybody who emails me for it. My goal with this isn’t to make money,
but to share my love of experimental fiction and nonlinear narratives.

Okay, that’s all.

0���N

Magic Hound Update

The Magic Hound of Eastminster is completed! I finished the first draft just a couple of weeks ago, and at present I’m doing my first read-through along with my beta team to make the first round of significant changes to the narrative - tightening up the plot, fleshing out characters, removing extraneous scenes, &c. 

After that, I’ll go through the draft again with my #1 Alpha Reader - to whom I happen to be married - to make changes to grammar and syntax. The language is sloppy in too many places, and pretty wordy as well…but hey. It’s the first draft. Cut me some slack, Internet.

After that, I’ll probably do one last run-through with a couple of trusted readers who don’t mind reading through it again/aren’t sick of me and the book yet. Then it’ll be time to begin the hunt for that absolutely essential ingredient for writing career success…The Literary Agent! (cue one song or another from The Dark Knight Soundtrack.)

The goal is for the book to be completely finished and ready to send off exactly one year from when I started writing it: my birthday, October 24. That’s still a ways off, and I’m confident that with hard work I can knock this out. Onward!

My Top 10 Favorite Films

Just a couple of weeks
ago, on New Year’s Day, I got the chance to see Arrival
in theaters. I’d heard nothing but good things about it, and all the
descriptions I’d read made it sound like exactly the kind of movie I
wanted to see. Plot summary: it was. I loved it. I’ll need to see it
again before I figure out where it falls in my list, but I’m
confident it’s going to eventually end up somewhere in my top 10
favorite films.  

That
realization did get me thinking, though – what are
my top 10 favorite movies? I know what my favorite is, of course; but
I don’t think I’d ever taken the time to compile a list or ask myself
why I love the movies that I do. So that’s the point of this here
little article. I found this exercise interesting and helpful because
it made me ask myself what it is I look for in a movie, what sort of
films I’m entertained by, and more often than not the answer comes
down, for me, to the story and the way in which it’s presented.

So,
without further ado – here’s my list of my top ten favorite films,
with a little explanation as to why I love each one.

Oh,
wait – first, a few notes.

Note
1) I deliberately did not include any of my favorite trash films in
this list – e.g. Troll 2, Birdemic,
etc. because those belong to a different category entirely. If I
would have done so, The Room
would have likely been at the top of the list, because that film is
the most astonishing piece of cinema I’ve ever encountered in my
life. If you’ve never seen it, perhaps one day you will be brave
enough to venture into its black hole, locked forever within its
embrace until the end of time.

Note
2) A number of these movies are prone to move around from their
designated slots, with the exception of Movie #1. Depending on my
mood, I may favor one over the other.

Note
3) I deliberately attempted to select only one movie per director. I
could have put numerous Nolan films on here, for instance, but I
decided to only put one. It seemed like the more palatable choice.

10. O
Brother, Where Art Thou? - I’m a big fan of a number of Coen brothers
films, but this was the one that started it all for me. Clooney’s
performance is top notch, of course, but everything about this movie
puts a smile on my face – the wackjob characters, the inane
dialogue, the portrait of the South that is all to familiar and way
too realistic. There are scenes from this movie that I’ll probably
spend the rest of my life quoting and watching.

9.
Les Miserables – No, I’ve never seen the musical version (maybe one
day). But this particular adaptation of Victor Hugo’s classic spammed
my childhood for years. Its imagery is still burned in my mind. This
is the movie that sealed Liam Neeson as one of my favorite actors,
but Geoffrey Rush is also incredibly as Javert. It’s hard to go wrong
with Les Mis’ story,
but something about the way this rendition captures it makes the
narrative really hit home for me.

8.
The Fountain – Yeah, sure, this movie is a little obtuse. But it’s
beautiful. It’s also certainly not something you watch if you’re in
the mood for a lighthearted, relaxed evening. It’s also not a
romance, strictly speaking, although this philosophical rumination on
love and death centers around a scientist trying to conquer a disease
(presumably cancer) before it claims his wife. Hugh Jackman is
awesome in this movie, and the three storylines running parallel to
each other tie up nicely at the end – at least, I think they do.
Still not quite sure what happens at the film’s conclusion. At that’s
the beauty of it.

7.
Jurassic Park – I saw this movie in the theater 6 times as a child.
I was obsessed with dinosaurs. These days I’m not as obsessed with
them, but I still love this film – probably my favorite work of
Spielberg’s. Action flick, disaster film, technothriller – whatever
you wanna call it, the special effects are still incredibly after all
these years, and the premise of the story…I mean, come on!
Dinosaurs running amok in an amusement park? What more could you
possibly want?

6.
The Truman Show – This movie is existentialism in film form, and I
never get tired of it. A sort of sci-fi comedy drama featuring an
affective performance by Jim Carrey? Yes please. The plot seems
simple enough, and almost gimmicky: a man’s life is a television show
and he doesn’t know it. But the execution is perfect, and the ways in
which the story is gradually revealed to the viewer, piece by piece,
makes it worth watching over and over again. To this day, I’m still
catching little details I didn’t notice the last time I watched. If
you haven’t seen this film, jump on it immediately.

5.
Return of the King – If I had to pick only one from the Lord
of the Rings trilogy to go on my
list, it would be Return of the King,
hands down. It is a fantastic resolution to an incredible story, the
best work of fiction in my opinion. The only reason this movie isn’t
higher on the list is because I love the books far more, and consider
them superior to the film. Because of that, there are other movies
that I enjoy more. But nevertheless, Peter Jackon’s vision of Middle
Earth in ROTK is astounding and beautiful. I never get tired of going
back.

4.
Return of the Jedi - Star Wars
is, far and away, my favorite film franchise (I define a franchise as
any movie series that contains more than three films. If you’ve got
another definition, I’m sorry). Return of the Jedi
has to be my favorite because I’ve watched it more times than any
other. Plus, seeing my favorite movie villain of all time get
redeemed in the end just makes my life that much better. We get to
see Luke in action, we get to see the Death Star blown up again,
and we get a pretty effective denouement. Pretty much flawless.

3.
There Will Be Blood – This is the movie that sealed Daniel
Day-Lewis as my favorite actor. It is a slow, sprawling epic of
biblical proportions: exploring the struggle for power between a
greedy oil man and a young charlatan preacher. That’s basically the
entire plot. But that’s all you need when you have this kind of
beautiful cinematography and, above all, this kind of character.
Daniel Plainview’s descent into madness is incredible to watch. It’s
like a massive train wreck in slow motion. By the time you reach the
end of the film, the tension is palpable. That’s a sign that the
story has taken you places.

2.
The Village – Shyamalan gets a bad rap these days, but there was a
time when his movies had a lot of beauty and power to them. In my
opinion, The Village
is his crowning achievement. Yes, a lot of people didn’t like it.
That’s because they went in convinced they were about to see another
supernatural thriller or a horror of some kind. This isn’t anything
like that. It’s much deeper, much more philosophical. Some people
accuse Shyamalan of being a one-trick pony: that one big twist at the
end that makes you go “Oh!”
That may be the case, but in The Village
it works to the story’s absolute advantage. Incredible performances
from Joaquin Phoenix and Bryce Dallas Howard, and the most beautiful
movie score by James Newton Howard that I have ever heard. This film
is worth watching over and over again.

1.
Inception – When it comes to my favorite directors, Christopher
Nolan has to be named as my number one. The man has made so many
films that I love, that capture everything I look for in movies. The
question is, which of his films goes in my number one slot? A number
of them could – Interstellar,
The Dark Knight Trilogy
(particularly the third – which a lot of people are surprised by,
but I have my reasons). But as incredible as all those movies are,
there is only one that can take the crown for me. Inception.

I
have never been so captivated by a movie in my life. I went and saw
Inception three
different times in the movie theater, going with three different
audiences. I wanted them to share the same wonder I felt. Even now,
when I go back and watch, I’m reminded that this movie has everything
I ever look for when I sit down to watch. I remember thinking the
same thing when I saw the trailer. The storyline is complex and deep
and keeps you thinking and guessing up until the very end; the acting
is superb; the last 45 minutes are so tense, so harrowing that even
now I get stressed out when I watch it. I don’t know if I’ll ever
encounter another movie that grabbed me the way that Inception
did – and that’s okay. I don’t necessarily expect other people to
understand why I love this movie so much – that’s okay. Inception
is, hands down, my favorite film.

Update: 1/16/17

One more chapter to go in The Magic Hound of
Eastminster. If things go
according to plan, I might be able to finish that chapter by the end
of the week and then take a break from writing for a little bit while
I continue to build up my beta team – which, if you’re interested,
there’s still room!

As far as my
reading goes, I’m currently tackling more books than a sane person
should, but the good thing is I’m not sane, so that works out. I’m
reading Mistborn (The Final Empire)
by Brandon Sanderson, The Knight
by Gene Wolfe, Howard’s End
by E.M. Forster, Night
by Elie Wiesel, Of Mice and Men
by John Steinbeck, The Religious Affections
by Jonathan Edwards and Desiring the Kingdom
by James K.A. Smith. Whew! What a mouthful. Some of these get read
significantly less than others, but hey – progress is progress,
right? 

If all goes according to plan, I’ll have a big ol’ happy slice of news to share in about a week or so. Until next time!

Update - A Long Time A’Comin’

Happy New Year!

After a relatively sustained period of silence, I
have committed to make 2017 the year of much, much, much more writing
- which includes updating this website with much more frequency than
in times past. “Updating,” I believe, will include news about my
own writing process, reviews of novels I’m reading, discussions about
the craft of writing, cool movies, video games – anything,
basically, do with storytelling.

So now for the first update of 2017 – in one
month’s time, I’ll be finished with The Magic Hound of
Eastminster, a novel I’ve been
working on since October, and a story I’ve been planning in my head
for twelve years.

Twelve. Years.

Here’s a little
history lesson just so you can have some perspective: when I was
fourteen years old, my aunt gave me the album Thirteenth
Step by the band A Perfect
Circle. This was when I was becoming a music nerd and rapidly falling
in love with every genre of rock I could get my hands on. I listened
to that CD backwards and forwards for a solid year, memorizing every
lyrics, vowing that one day I’d find a way to rip off Billy Howerdel
and create my own art rock band.

On one particular
January evening, I believe it was, I was riding my bike around the
neighborhood while listening to the album. My favorite track was
towards the end – it’s called “Pet,” and it’s basically a man
being spoken to by a drug-induced hallucination that tells him it
will keep him safe from all the troubles in the world. (My 14 year
old self didn’t know that at the time; I just thought it was an
awesome song, especially since it was the “heaviest.”) It had
grown dark, and I was biking home, and that song came on – and all
of a sudden I had this image in my head of a boy, trying to run away
in the dark from malevolent creatures bent on destroying him, being
protected by the narrator of the song: a mysterious being from
another dimension who willingly sacrificed his own life to keep the
boy from harm.

I can’t remember if
I rushed home and started working on the story that night, but I
remember that in a few days’ time I had a short, five page piece of
fiction simply called “E,” named after the mysterious being. But
the idea kept intriguing me, and 5 pages wasn’t enough – so I
turned it into a novel, at least in my head. Then into a trilogy.

I made it to page
40-something, and then stopped.

A few months later,
I took up the thread again. This time I reworked the story, giving it
another spin. I did this over and over again over the course of the
next two years or so – starting a draft, not liking where it was
going, deleting it, starting over. The first, original draft of the
story miraculously survived, as did the fourth or fifth version which
I named The Anartheid
– not quite sure why, but you know, whatever – but this too fell
flat. Every version I created fell flat. I loved the core of the
story – the main character, Adam, and his protector (now named Ea
because I figured that was easier to read than simply one letter) –
but all the twists and turns of plot, the complications, the
particulars: I couldn’t get them right. Over and over again I worked
on the story, transforming it, adding elements, taking them out. It
eventually took on the name it still has to this day: Blindsight.
That was probably about six years ago, maybe a little more.

I finally reached a
place where I thought I finally had it – the story had transformed
into an extremely complex science fantasy trilogy – but then I ran
into a number of plot holes and problems that I couldn’t fix, so I
made the decision to finally shelf the tale indefinitely. I had used
up so much time and creative energy with world-building and
plot-structuring and character-developing that my authorial faculties
had run dry. I almost didn’t want to write anymore. In fact, I
remember I took a break for a number of months, extremely
disappointed that my first real story into which I’d poured so much
was continuing to come up flat, lacking something – that little
spark to give it life.

I decided, then, to
take up other projects I’d started to work on or had worked out with
enough clarity in my head to put to the page. I finished a novel I’d
begun in college, Descent Into Madness,
and self-published it last year – though admittedly that took a
number of drafts and false starts before I finally reached the place
with it where I was happy. I finished up some existential, fable-like
novellas I’d tinkered with over the years. And finally, over the
course of a few weeks last year, I wrote a little book called
Darkfield – an
experimental sci-fi novella that reads more like a puzzle than a
story.

All the while,
Blindsight sat on the
shelf of my mind, waiting expectantly to be taken up again someday.
But still I refused, because I just couldn’t get it right. So I took
a shot at some other ideas: The Sparrow in the Wind Cage,
a retrofuturistic fantasy trilogy. I didn’t like where the first
draft was going, so I retired it. I started working on the Peregrine
trilogy, realized it needed some
more work, trashed the first draft. (I’m pleased to say that
Peregrine still
exists, and it’s the next project I’m working on.) And then, after
finishing Darkfield,
while trying to decide what to work on next, I got intrigued by a
simple idea featuring a character I instantly liked, named Barth
Despact. The story would be called…The Magic Hound of
Eastminster. Yes! I already
liked where this was going. The premise was simple: a man named Barth
is the apprentice to the Magic Hound, the sole person in the city of
Eastminster responsible for finding any and all traces of magic and
apprehending the caster by any means necessary – sort of like a
Sherlock Holmes of magicians, if you will. But then his master is
brutally murdered by a group of renegade wizards, and suddenly Barth
finds himself the new Magic Hound even though his training is
incomplete – and it’s his responsibility to track down these
criminals, who call themselves the Warlocks, before “all Hel breaks
loose.”

I started writing
at the end of October and couldn’t believe how quickly, how easily
the story came together. It flowed out more completely and smoothly
than any other story I’d worked on in – well, I don’t know when.
I’d never experienced this before. Yes, it was far from perfect –
there were a number of places that needed work, and still do. But
even on the worst days I was finding that the story was almost
telling itself. I wasn’t writing it, I was transcribing what I was
seeing in my head. It was amazing.

Not until I was
halfway through the book did I realize that I was actually writing
Blindsight. The
characters, the story – all of it was Blindsight, a new version,
one that had been germinating in my subconscious for who knows how
long and was finally ready to see the light of day. The story I’d
first created twelve years ago, that I’d tinkered with more times
than I could count – it had finally taken on the form it needed. I
had a version that I loved and was proud of, with characters I
enjoyed, with a plot that made sense but still had enough
complication and tension to keep it from being 2D cardboard.

I still don’t quite
know how this happened, or why it happened the way it did – all I
know is that I am so happy to finally be writing the story I’ve been
working on for what feels like ages, what is in many ways my “magnum
opus” even though it may not be the most creative or epic thing
I’ll ever write. Of all the stories I’ve ever devised, it’s the most
precious to me – and I cannot wait to share it with the world.

I’m so sorry for
this ridiculously long post, but I wanted to share my journey with
this story if only to capture some of the excitement that I’m feeling
now that the first draft of Blindsight, Book One: The Magic
Hound of Eastminster is almost
finished. By the end of this month, it will be.

My plan from there
is simple: my alpha readers are on standby, and I’m assembling my
team of beta readers now. After spending as much time as I need to
this year revising and editing, I plan to dedicate all of my energy
to looking for an agent while beginning to write Book Two of
Blindsight. That’s
what 2017 is going to look like for me as an author, and I couldn’t
be more excited.